When healthcare workers are asked why they don't report violence, they commonly state that the injury was not associated with a loss of work or injury, and that the reporting process is too time consuming. Others believe reporting lacks supervisory support and won't make a difference.

The issue of violence against healthcare workers is not new!

Doctors, nurses, and others who work courageously to care for those caught up in armed conflicts and other health crises are increasingly targets of violence themselves. In many cases, patients also are being attacked. However, this behavior is not restricted to areas of conflict, and has found its way into our local community clinics and hospitals.

Several studies have highlighted this form of violence, with reported rates of verbal and physical violence been greatly significant. One such study by Gerberich states that although many health care workers believe the problem of workplace violence is increasing, these claims may be as low as 15% due to a low report rate when considering physical violence alone. When compared to physical assaults, non-physical violence is documented even less, despite evidence showing that the negative consequences associated with such violence are substantial.

Nurses have indicated that violence is to be expected. In the Gerberichet al study, 44% of nurses do not report physical violence because it is just “part of the job”. An additional alarming finding from this study is that only 27% of the nurses perceive violence to be a problem in their workplace, even though 13% experienced physical assaults and 38% experienced non-physical violence during the previous year.

Unfortunately, these findings suggest that violence may not be identified as a problem until there is a critical incident with casualties